Mar 20, 2015

Contemporary Conditionalists



Conditionalism is the lesser known of the three views and there have been several reasons suggested as to why that is the case. I think that it could simply be because it is a minority view and less controversial than universalism. However, that doesn't mean there hasn't been negative reactions against it or that there aren't significant conditionalist christian leaders and thinkers.

Perhaps the most prominent conditionalist in this past century was John Stott, an Anglican evangelical leader in England. He is considered one of the central figures of the global evangelical movement of the last century and famously 'came out' as a conditionalist in a debate book called "Evangelical Essentials: A Liberal Evangelical Dialogue." You can read his entire portion of the chapter on hell here for free.

Stott wasn't the only prominent thinker to voice his conditionalist view. Many of his contemporaries also came forward to state their position regardless of the potential backlash from their churches or loss of their jobs such as: Phillip Hughes, Clark Pinnock, Dale Moodey, RT France, and John Wenham. The most significant book on the subject, "The fire that consumes," by Edward Fudge was also published in the 80's with a foreword by FF Bruce.

Significant present day leaders and thinkers who are conditionalists:
  • Richard Bauckham
  • Richard Forster
  • John Franke
  • Richard Swinburne
  • Michael Green
  • John Stackhouse
  • Anthony Thisleton
  • Greg Boyd
  • I Howard Marshall

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